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places, chairs, tables, cupboards, and ruberoid covering for the floor. Each bedroom contains two wire bedsteads with kapoc mattresses, pillows, bed-linen, wardrobe, &c. One room is set aside as. a hospital. The walls and ceilings are papered, linoleum covers the floor, and there is also provided a table, chairs, dressing-table, and wardrobe. Medical and first-aid appliances are kept in a cabinet. The sanitary arrangements are modern, comprising a lavatory at the rear of each building, in which are washbasins, urinal, and closet. Water is laid on, and the waste water is conducted to a large septic tank, whence the effluent drains through earthenware pipes to the Manawatu River. A fourth building is used as a dining-room and kitchen, fitted tip with the latest appliances for dealing with the culinary requirements of the large number of workers. The dining-room is well furnished with chairs, tables, table-linen, &c.; the walls are panelled and stained. This accommodation is quite equal to that at many hotels. Accommodation for Farm Labourers. Inspections have also been made in any cases where complaints had lieen lodged regarding the accommodation provided for these workers, and where the accommodation has been found to be unsatisfactory the usual steps have been taken —viz., by requisition on the owners —to have improvements effected. Legal Proceedings (Flax-mills and Sawmills). Three applications were made to the Court by the Inspectors for orders requiring accommodation to be provided in accordance with the Act. One against a flax-miller was dismissed. In this case, although the mill was situated about five miles from a township, evidence was given to the Court that several of the employees preferred to live in town, and that the other employees were satisfied with the accommodation provided at the mill. The Court therefore held that the accommodation provided was sufficient under the circumstances to meet the requirements of the Act, and made no order. THE WAGES PROTECTION AND CONTRACTORS' LIENS ACT. No important breaches of this Act have come under notice during the year. As the Act comprises a consolidation (effected in 1908) of several smaller Acts—viz., Truck 1891, Contractors' and Workmen's Lien, 1892, Workmen's Wages, 1893, Threshing-machine Owners' Lien, 1895, Wages Attachment, 1895, and Wages Protection, 1899—more or less related to one another and in some respects overlapping one another, a revision of the same is under preparation by the Crown Law Officers. SERVANTS' REGISTRY OFFICES ACT. The following list shows the number of licensed registry offices in each of the principal towns of the Dominion :— Auckland .. .. .. 23 Masterton .. .. .. 3 Wellington .. •. .. .. 12 Nelson .. .. .. Nil Christchurch ..16 Greymouth .. .. ..1 Dunedin . ."* ..13 Timaru .. .. ..3 Gisborne .. .. ..3 Oamaru .. .. ..3 Napier .. .. 1 Invercargill .. .. .. 7 New Plymouth .... 1 — Wanganui .. .. 3 Total .. .. 97 Palmerston North .. .. 8 During the year the scale of fees payable by employers and servants to registry-office keepers for engagements made under the Act was again revised. The scale gazetted in March, 1913, had effected certain reductions in the fees chargeable to servants, as it had been ascertained that while the servants had in general practice been, charged by the registry-office keepers the full fees prescribed in the existing scale for servants, the employers had been charged considerably less than half of those fixed for employers, amounting to only about two-thirds of those paid by servants. After the gazetting of the March, 1913. scale complaints were, however, made by registry-office keepers that it was impossible for several reasons to collect the full fees from employers (owing to competition, to the fact that employers could obtain servants more cheaply by advertisement, and so on). A new scale was then gazetted (on the 30th January, 1914) slightly

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